Elon Musk plans to build a five-mile Hyperloop test track in Texas

Not one to be discouraged in the wake of a failed SpaceX rocket landing earlier this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter today to provide an update on another of the entrepreneur’s moonshot projects.

Musk noted in a series of tweets that his company plans to build a test track for its proposed Hyperloop transport system that’ll allow companies and student teams to test their pod designs. The executive added that he’s thinking of having an annual Hyperloop pod racing competition for students, similar to Formula SAE.

Will be building a Hyperloop test track for companies and student teams to test out their pods. Most likely in Texas.

The test track, spanning five miles in length, will likely be built in Texas, Musk said. Unfortunately, he didn’t provide a timetable of when the testing facility would open.

Musk first teased his Hyperloop system roughly 18 months ago, providing more details a month later. The idea is to build a network of cross-country tubes with capsules inside that can carry passengers over great distances at speeds of up to 800 mph. That’s roughly 300 mph faster than a typical commercial passenger jet.

It may sound a lot like science fiction but Musk claims a cross-country Hyperloop system would cost just a quarter of what it’d take to build a highway and consume 1/20th the amount of materials as a high-speed rail line. Savings would be passed along to the consumer as a trip from New York to Los Angeles would set riders back just $100.